SGER: Biomimetic Wet Attachment Mechanism for Miniature Climbing Robots in Unstructured Environments

机器人学和计算机视觉程序建议#：0328579标题：SGER：微型攀爬机器人在非结构化环境中的仿生湿式附着机构PI：Sitti，MetinCarnegie Mellon University这项研究调查了一种未经测试的新型微型攀爬机器人基于毛细管力的附着机构的开发。与目前可用的技术不同，这种新技术将能够以相对较高的附着力实现对大范围非结构表面的坚固和能量高效的攀爬。所提出的基于湿粘着的附着和脱离机制的灵感来自于甲虫、蚂蚁、蟋蟀等类型的昆虫。将实现第一个具有微流控通道和储液器的仿生聚合物微/纳米毛发结构的设计和制造，并论证其可行性。柔顺的聚合物毛发及其液层可以通过填充缝隙来适应宽范围的表面粗糙度，而使用强大的毛细作用力，可能会产生比机器人体重高几个数量级的附着力。此外，由于粘连的微/纳米毛发的剥离机理还不完全清楚，因此将对粘连的微/纳米毛发的剥离进行研究。通过优化的分离机构以最小的作用力，可以显著降低微型机器人的功耗。通过提出的合成微纳米结构制造技术和微纳米力模型的开发，在不久的将来，在非结构环境中健壮的微型攀爬和行走机器人系统将成为可能。因此，将在灾难和事故中拯救更多的生命，我们可以进入前所未有的核危险区域。

Robotics and Computer Vision ProgramABSTRACTProposal #: 0328579Title: SGER: Biomimetic Wet Attachment Mechanism for Miniature Climbing Robots in Unstructured EnvironmentsPI: Sitti, MetinCarnegie Mellon UniversityThis research investigates the development of an untested and novel capillary forces based attachment mechanism for miniature climbing robots. As different from the currently available techniques, this novel technique would enable robust and power efficient climbing to wide range of unstructured surfaces with relatively high attachment forces. The proposed wet adhesion based attachment and detachment mechanism is inspired from beetles, ants, crickets, etc. type of insects. Design and manufacturing of the first biomimetic polymer micro/nano-hair structures with microfluidic channels and liquid reservoir would be realized, and its feasibility would be demonstrated. Compliant polymer hairs and their liquid layer could adapt to wide range of surface roughness by filling the gaps, and attachment forces few magnitudes order higher than the robot body weight would become possible using strong capillary forces. Moreover, the detachment of the stuck micro/nano-hairs would be investigated since the detachment mechanism has not been completely understood yet. By an optimized detachment mechanism with minimal forces, power consumption of the miniature robots would be reduced significantly. By the proposed synthetic micro/nano-structure manufacturing techniques and micro/nano-force models to be developed, robust miniature climbing and walking robotic systems in unstructured environments would become possible in the near future. Thus, more lives would be saved in disasters and accidents, and we could access to unprecedented and hazardous areas in nuclear